65 posts categorized "Tools and Tips for Small Businesses"

Learn how to project your business cash flow in QuickBooks for a 6 week period with the video tutorial below:

WHAT ARE YOU USING FOR CASH FLOW PROJECTIONS?

If you're not using the QuickBooks cash flow projector, I'm curious as to what app or program you may be using to see how the upcoming cash flow looks for your business. Are you using Excel? PlanGuru? Something else?

Team Management - Assign tasks and jobs to your employees and keep up-to-date on their progress with the Jobber Field app. Employees can track their time, add notes and attachments to visits, and Jobber can automatically create GPS waypoints throughout their day Capabilities include:

Fully mobile - you can easily run the business from your phone or tablet

THE BUY BUTTON WON'T BREAK THE BANK

Adding the Shopify Buy Button to your existing web site runs just $9 per month. Other Shopify plans are also available to allow you to build your own online store and add even more features if desired - those start at $29 per month.

Shopify offers a free 14 day trial, with no credit card required so you can see for yourself how the Buy button and other features might work for you.

This post was shared by Chris Wise from CoralTree, the makers of Qbox...thanks Chris!

Trying to find a better way of getting QuickBooks information to your accountant (or if you're an accountant, to get information from your client)?

Many accountants and small businesses become exceptionally frustrated when trying to share QuickBooks files using the Accountants Copy. To avoid the frustration related to the reduced functions of this type of file, you can use a resource like Qbox. Qbox is one of the fastest growing QuickBooks desktop file sharing/collaboration resources available due to its security, simplicity, affordability, and high level of customer support.

If you are looking for a way to share a QuickBooks desktop file with a client or shared user in a remote location, Qbox provides an effective solution. Unlike other traditional file sharing options, Qbox has unique controls that prevent the creation of conflicted copies and file corruption.

Accountants and small businesses appreciate that each Qbox user has their own local copy of the QuickBooks file and experience the performance of their local environment when entering transactions.

As an accountant or bookkeeper, you can access all of your clients from one simplified access point called the Qbox Explorer. You work on your client’s files at any time regardless of whether or not your client’s computer is turned on.

Screen shot of the Qbox Explorer:

Using Qbox, your files are always backed up in the cloud and available to download should anything happen to a user’s computer. Additionally, Qbox keeps 20 copies (versions) of files in the cloud at all times so in the event of a corrupted file, a user can “roll back” to their preferred instance of the file.

If you are frustrated with the limited capabilities of an Accountants Copy, using Qbox, you always have access to the working QuickBooks file. All of the Desktop functions are available to a Qbox user and you can print and/or back up locally if you so choose.

Has your business outgrown the purchasing module found within QuickBooks desktop software?

Looking for ways to streamline the purchasing process?

Need to add an approval process to your purchasing management? (not found in QuickBooks!)

Have people in different locations and all they need is access to purchasing (and not the entire QuickBooks package)?

INTRODUCING PROCURIFY

Procurify is an add-on application to the desktop versions of QuickBooks (Pro, Premier and Enterprise). By "add-on", I mean it is a separate piece of software that connects to QuickBooks and syncs information between the two programs.

It can bring a lot of functionality to your business that is not found within the basic purchase order module of QuickBooks.

Here is the suggested Procurify workflow...

Request - electronically submit new purchase requests using your web browser or mobile device (notice - this doesn't have any mention of the staff person needing access to QuickBooks?)

Approve - create automated approval routing based on your business needs. Establish direct lines of communication between the right people.

Receive the items - intuitive and easy to understand interface lets you accurately document received items through your web browser or mobile device.

Set up to pay your vendor - enable complete transparency throughout your purchase order workflow. Keep on top of payments and eliminate duplicate or unnecessary spending.

EMPOWERING YOUR STAFF

Procurify helps simplify operations across all the functional areas of your business:

Buyers - funnel all of your purchase requests from all locations into a single, easily managed bucket. We facilitate the internal back-and-forth communication, allowing requesters to check the status of their orders at any time. Improve supplier relationships and standardize the goods you buy.

Operations - get through purchase approvals faster. Reduce the amount of bottlenecks and improve efficiency for your operations. Define and structure each role within your organization’s purchasing process with complete clarity.

Finance - establish and easily ensure enforcement of controls and policies (IE. use purchase orders, ensure approvals, three way matches), while not increasing your headcount. Empower people to stay accountable to their budget, by giving them real time information instead of monthly reports. (Visibility into spending in real time)

IT - Gain full adoption organization wide by implementing tools which are easy to learn and fun to use. Procurify worries about the infrastructure and security and reduces the load on your team and it integrates with select tools, and seamlessly passes data between them.

My consulting practice specializes in helping businesses retain their investment in QuickBooks as their core accounting package, while extending the features and functionality through various add-on packages. Tap into my 30+ years of accounting, finance, inventory, and QuickBooks experience.

The Now Commerce customer portal feature brings the following possibilities to life for your business and allows your customers to:

View real-time pricing and inventory levels

Check shipping status

View pending orders

View account history

This is all done with customized order forms that can be tailored to the specific needs of each customer. These order forms can range from super simple to complicated matrix pricing.

SALES REP PORTAL

The Now Commerce sales rep portal brings many time-saving features into the way sales reps take care of your customers, including:

View real-time pricing and inventory levels

Check shipping status

View pending orders

View account history

As well as:

Monitor customer activity

Set customizable alerts

Manage pricing and discounts

Only see their own accounts, and not those of other reps

NOW COMMERCE FULFILLMENT PLATFORM

This module provides you the ability to:

Share shipping information with your sales reps and customers

Electronically transmit shippers from QuickBooks to your third party warehouse

Automatically populate QuickBooks with critical shipping data

CHOOSE JUST WHAT YOU NEED

The Now Commerce products are set up in such a way that you can choose just the module(s) you want - if you only want the customer portal, that's all you'd pay for. If you want all three, they can do that as well.

B2B businesses are at the core of my consulting practice, especially those in manufacturing and distribution. Feel free to contact me for more information on the Now Commerce set of tools as well as other QuickBooks and inventory concerns you may have.

When it comes to workflows within a business, I've seen a wide variety of them over the last thirty years.

One topic that seems to be entering the conversation with greater frequency these days is the ability to hide the cost of inventory parts, assemblies and kits within QuickBooks.

The reasons for wanting to hide the costs are many and varied, but the desire has been expressed many times.

QUICKBOOKS ITEM SETUP

If we look at a screenshot of the item master, you can see that both the purchase cost (for use on POs) and the average cost (for use with inventory valuations and costs of goods sold) are plainly visible:

None of the versions of QuickBooks (Pro, Premier or Enterprise) offer the ability to block users from seeing these cost fields, assuming that the user has been given the permission to work with items and inventory. If they don't have the permissions, naturally they don't see item costs. However, they can't access the items either, and in many cases, that will restrict their ability to do their jobs (i.e. receive inventory, create purchase orders, etc.)

ALL ORDERS BY NUMBERCRUNCHER - AN ALTERNATIVE TO ALLOW INVENTORY COST BLOCKING

If this "cost-blocking" is a must have for your business, that will force you to step outside of the QuickBooks functionality to add-on packages that have it.

Add-ons (some refer to these as "bolt-ons" or "integrated solutions") such as All Orders are designed to fill in gaps where QuickBooks doesn't do something very well, or doesn't do something at all.

In the case of All Orders, it is designed to be either a stand alone inventory solution, or it can integrate with QuickBooks desktop versions. If you choose to integrate it with QuickBooks, All Orders will then pretty much take over the "front end" of the business (i.e. purchase orders, inventory management, sales orders, etc.), and then QuickBooks will remain in the picture on the "back end" of the business (i.e. bill paying and financial reporting).

There is plenty of horsepower packed into the All Orders package that will help take your inventory management and related tasks to the next level of tracking and sophistication. Naturally, there is an investment of time and money required to get up to speed on it or any add-on for that matter. The good news - when properly chosen and implemented, the return on investment of these add-ons can be quite good!

Want to grab a quick picture of your computer screen and capture an important message being displayed?

GRAB A SCREENSHOT TO HELP!

As a QuickBooks consultant, there are many times where it is invaluable for me to see what exactly is being displayed on a screen so I can help a client understand what is happening with QuickBooks (or to guide them to a resolution of a question).

There are several ways to grab a snapshot of what is appearing on your computer screen to help with the diagnosis of a problem or to get more information on an area of concern (not just with QuickBooks, but with any program for that matter!).

Options to consider:

Take a picture of the screen with your smartphone

Press the Print Screen key on your keyboard (don't panic if the printer doesn't kick in automatically - it won't!). From there, open Microsoft Word (or any other word processor) and click Edit > Paste to paste an image of the screen or just right click your mouse and Paste the image in.

Use the Windows Snipping Tool - found by clicking the Start button, then All Programs, then Accessories, then Snipping Tool. Once you do that, a screen like this will appear - just follow the instructions from there:

My favorite solution - invest the $49.95 in a copy of SnagIt software from TechSmith. Hands down, this has been one of the best investments I have made for my business toolkit. I use it multiple times each and every day. The features and options that have been packed into this little gem of a program are simply amazing to me. They offer a free trial of the software of course, so you can "try before you buy".

DO YOU HAVE AN ALTERNATE IDEA?

If you are grabbing screenshots in a way different from those outlined above, feel free to share your insights on how you're doing it!

It can take even more time if you accept credit cards, and your merchant service provider takes the credit card fees out of EACH transaction!

Spend less time on bank reconciliations with the following tip.

LET ME EXPLAIN...

Let's say that you ring up a sale for $100 today and the customer pays via credit card.

When this deposit shows up in your bank statement, does it show up for the full $100? Or does it show up for something like $97.54 because the processor has taken their fee out of it right then and there?

If it is the latter where they are taking out the fees for each transaction, stop what you are doing and call them right now.

Ask to have your merchant service account fees set up on the "gross fees" basis instead of the "net fees" basis.

Under the "gross fees" basis, in the example above, you would see the full $100 being deposited into your bank account (the full "gross amount" is deposited). Your merchant service provider would then just hit your bank account once per month for the total of all the credit card fees for the month, and NOT take them out on a transaction by transaction basis.

Naturally, the merchant service provider normally defaults to the "net fees" basis, since they get paid faster that way. All it usually takes is a phone call to get it switched around!

The big benefit to you? Your $100 deposit will now reconcile on the bank statement in a nano-second!!

Baystate has created both a Transaction Pro Importer tool to take data from Excel or CSV files and import it into QuickBooks. Their Transaction Pro Exporter program moves data the other way - from QuickBooks to Excel or CSV files.

What type of information are we referring to here?

This is just a short list of the information you can move between QuickBooks and Excel:

I have found the Baystate team to be exceptionally responsive and helpful to customer inquiries, and they have a very helpful support forum as well where folks can exchange ideas and get questions answered.